Though extremely shy this brilliant gem of a bird finds it hard to hide wearing such an iridescent blend of garnet and blue making for a spellbinding combination.

Meet the Garnet Pitta

The garnet pitta (Erythropitta granatina), is a species of bird in the  Pittidae family. A medium-sized stocky bird at 15-25cm in length, including a very short tail, these birds are covered in a combination of purplish-blue, and garnet red finished off with sparkling blue wing coverts and a vivid red crown.

Females of this species are mostly brown with a red patch on the head and a couple of blue feathers near the wings.

This species is endemic to and can be found in, Thailand, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma, and Singapore.

These birds like to live in tropical or subtropical moist lowland forests.

The breeding season for Garnet Pittas is between March and August, when up to six eggs are laid in a large spherical nest located in a tree or shrub, rarely on the ground. Both parents help to raise the young.

Unfortunately, the Garnet Pitta is listed as near threatened on the IUCN red list, falling prey to systematic deforestation and forest fires.

“SMBR4339-Edit” by Annonimal is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Watch this bird right here in the video below: